Transplants, the first organ removal from a woman over a hundred years old

This is the first time this has happened in the world. A woman who died at 100 years, 10 months and 1 day donated an organ for the purpose of transplantation. The first sampling from a person over a hundred years old was carried out atSan Giovanni di Dio hospital in Florence last week. The liver of the woman, with the green light of the operational coordinations of the Regional Transplant Center of Tuscany and the National Transplant Center, was judged suitable and successfully transplanted into a person on the waiting list at the University Hospital of Pisa.

“In the space of 24 hours, the San Giovanni di Dio hospital was the site of two absolutely exceptional organ donation events”, explain Daniele Cultrera, hospital coordinator of San Giovanni di Dio of the Tuscan transplant organization and Alessandro Pacini, responsible for donations organs and transplanted hospital network Ausl Toscana centro. «In addition to the removal of the liver from the patient over a hundred years old, we also had ours first controlled multi-organ donation with a still heart“.

The transplant was carried out after having activated all the procedures necessary to ensure maximum safety of the recipient, as explained by Professor Paolo De Simone, director of the Operative Unit of Liver Surgery and Liver Transplants of the University Hospital of Pisa. «After careful evaluation of the clinical characteristics of the donor, the quality of the organ was histologically checked, also using ex situ hypothermic perfusion to protect the liver from any post-transplant complications. The surgery was successful and the patient is in good condition. The procedure represents the culmination of years of multidisciplinary clinical work and study on the use of elderly donors, on which the Pisa Transplant Center and the Tuscany Region have invested resources and planning ».

Before the removal from the over 100 year old woman, the oldest organ donor ever registered in Italy was a woman who died in Fabriano at 97 years and 7 months at the end of October. Other withdrawals on 97-year-olds were made in 2003, 2008, 2018 and 2019. Internationally there are no solid organ donations from people who died beyond the century of life, as confirmed by the director of the National Transplant Center Massimo Cardillo, «but only some rare tissue samples, such as corneas. We are in the presence of an exceptional event which however testifies once again, a few days after the Fabriano blood sample, the technical and organizational capacity of the Italian transplant network to enhance all donations, even those of very old people, in order to give effective answers. waiting for the transplantation of over 8 thousand patients in our country “.

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